‘Edge’ marks the return of Mel Gibson to film

By Steve W. Schaefer

“Edge of Darkness”

Rated R for strong bloody violence, and language.

On my way to see, “Edge of Darkness,” I saw a car with a bumper sticker that read, “9-11 Was An Inside Job.” How did the owner of that bumper sticker become such a chucklehead?

After seeing “Edge of Darkness,” I have a theory. The threadbare corrupt corporation and the evil secret government agency working together to oppress and/or kill the “little guy” plotline still resonates with people who simply refuse to believe bad things happen to innocent people — unless the CIA, Military Complex, NSA, etc., is/are behind it. Movies that feature these “bad guys” with $2,000 suits and rogue government agents with big guns are as commonplace as popcorn on the floor of the movie theater. Impressionable people with a proclivity for paranoia swallow-whole films like “Edge of Darkness” and, most disturbingly, believe the make-believe nonsense. There ought to be a rating: “NNP — Not to be seen by boneheaded ninnies with paranoia.”

Mel Gibson, desperate to earn back the public’s affection after his booze and tumble with the police that included a moronic paranoid rant about Jews conspiring against the world (and apparently staging his very own arrest) has put together a corned beef and mashed potatoes tale of an honest Boston cop, Thomas Craven, whose beloved adult daughter is shot-gunned to death before his eyes. Papa Craven is going to find and punish the evil-doers with big gun battles, spectacular car crashes and bone crushing punches to the proverbial pie hole.

Mel Gibson is back.

For the record: “Edge of Darkness” was a BBC TV miniseries back in the 1980s. I am not sure why I need to inform you of such but now I can claim this is an educational and entertaining newspaper column.

Craven’s sweet daughter, an MIT graduate no less, works for an evil corporation that is messing with dirty bombs and an unnamed governmental agency, represented by two weasels that just beg to be turned into flesh pulp and bone chips. Oh, I forgot, the corporate bad guy is played as a sissy boy by Danny Huston (a son of film director John Huston). This character is odious from the gitgo, and he is in bad need of a stern comeuppance. We are not disappointed.

Craven, at first, thinks that he was the intended target but learns quickly that his daughter did clerical work at a James Bond-looking compound that does classified work for the government and was truly marked for assassination. Mel’s (I mean Craven’s) badge comes off and his bulldog face is set; trouble’s a-brewing and

Beantown revenge is at hand.

Actually, “Edge of Darkness” is fun, despite the pathetic storyline.

However, I have to complain about the mysterious Captain Jetburgh (Ray Winston), the guy who makes witnesses of government naughtiness disappear. I like Mr. Winston’s work, but in this movie his unexplained cockney accent is so thick that one pines for the coherent cockney cadence of Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins.”

On the other hand, it is a fun, cheesy tale that serves up its revenge with Boston grit and gusto. And the film has one of the best lines in recent memory: Mel intones: “You had better decide whether you’re hangin’ on the cross — or bangin’ in the nails.” Now that is a good’n.

Despite my gripes, I enjoyed “Edge of Darkness.” It was a wicked tidbit of pleasure. As far as film art, it isn’t. It is a bag of chemically enhanced chips bought on the road from a ubiquitous convenience store.

“Edge of Darkness” earns three and a half bow ties out of five.